Darkest Before the Dawn
by Lapis Love
Summary: Checklist: chains-check. Vervain-check. Blow torch-check. Her days of being passive aggressive were over. The Salvatore's would know what happens when you screw over a Bennett. Dark Bonnie
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Dark Bonnie. Nuff said. Special Disclaimer: This story involves violence/torture. Not suitable reading material for those under 18. **

Disclaimer: These characters are the creative property of LJ Smith and The CW. No copyright infringement is intended.

A coin toss? That was how they decided her mother's fate tonight? A fudging coin toss! Bonnie stomped back and forth across the floor in her bedroom occasionally flicking her eyes to the still form lying in the center of her bed. Her mother's chest wasn't moving. Her neck was awkwardly contorted like a marionette whose strings had been prematurely cut. She had only been reunited with her mom for a month, and during that month they spent that time trying to find a way to scrap whatever magic lingered in Abby Bennett out.

Tears flowed unchecked down her caramel cheeks, ruining her mascara and eyeliner, not like she cared one iota about her appearance tonight.

Tonight everything that happened a thousand years ago would have been reversed, eradicated, vanquished. Klaus and his siblings alike would have been wiped from the face of the earth and Bonnie would have been able to skip off happily into her future. Everyone on her side of the spectrum would have won.

But naturally things did not go down that course. Elena, of course spilled the beans to Elijah who then took her hostage and then forced Damon and Stefan to find a way to stop Esther from carrying out her plan, or he'd give the order to Rebekah to kill Elena if they failed to do so.

And of course Bonnie had been selected to be the unlucky winner tonight.

This is what Bonnie wanted to say to the following people and in this order.

Rebekah: You're a crazy bitch but you had a point. It is rather annoying what lengths people will go to to save Elena's life. Bra-freaking-O, maybe when this is over we can go clubbing.

Esther: It was nice knowing you but we should have had a better plan.

Finn: For once I found myself understanding a vampire. Although it was kind of sad you were willing to die only to right the misguided wrong your mother created. But wait…we kind of have that martyrdom complex in common.

Kol: Glad I never really had to talk to you and more than likely I wouldn't have like you anyways.

Elijah: I hope you get sodomized by a porcupine.

Klaus: Either grow a pair and be completely bad-ass because the love unrequited look does nothing for you.

Stefan: You better look both ways before you cross the street.

Damon: I am going to One)defang you. Two)slit your damn throat. Three)cut off the penis you are so obviously proud of and love to spread around. Four) wear your day walking ring around my neck like a trophy after hog tying you to a wheelchair and rolling you off a steep cliff at high noon.

Caroline walked into her bedroom shattering Bonnie's dark fantasy. With her she carried two blood bags. Just eyeing those things made Bonnie's anger resurface and consume her every waking thought. She watched as her only friend sat them down on the bed side table. Caroline hovered near the edge of the bed looking over Abby's still form. Bonnie wasn't exactly sure what Caroline was looking for, but she honestly was glad she was here.

This wasn't something she wanted to go at alone.

"Everything is going to be fine, Bonnie. I know you're worried, but I'm here, and we're going to get through this together."

Caroline's soft voice was meant to be comforting and reassuring but Bonnie's insides didn't want everything to work out, to _be_ fine, because she wasn't fine.

Vampires took her grandmother, almost took her identity, and now…

They, or he, she should say took her mother. Abby wouldn't want this. She wouldn't want to be made immortal and have to drink human blood in order to live. Just as she had found someone who could help her with her power, Bonnie was inexplicably made to walk the earth alone-again.

"We won't know how anything is going to turn out, Caroline," Bonnie said through the raw burn of her throat.

"No, we won't," Caroline conceded yet mustered on. "But thinking positive is the only way you're going to be able to get through the next few days."

Bonnie snorted and walked over to the window and looked out. Her entire street was silent. The world twirled on its axis and everyone was left none the wiser.

Bonnie turned away from the window and stared at her friend. "What if she doesn't want to transition?"

Caroline felt the pain of her question because not that long ago she had to sit and watch her father die. Caroline bit her lower lip and crossed the room to stand in front of Bonnie. She clasped her by the shoulders.

"It's her choice, and we're going to have to honor it."

Bonnie's chin quivered. She couldn't lose her mother for the second time in her life. Abby left when Bonnie was a toddler and she had no memory of her, flash forward fifteen years and she found her only to drag her into the supernatural BS that happened on a daily basis. Abby was now collateral damage. Elena lives. The love triangle gets to continue on another day, and Bonnie was the one left to wade her way through constant shit.

"I don't want to lose her, Care. I just found her."

Caroline nodded her head and pulled Bonnie in for a hug. The two girls embraced and then an audible gasp sounded from the bed.

Bonnie ripped herself away from Caroline and rushed to the side of the bed. Abby looked around, her eyes wild and bewildered.

"What's going on? I feel…I feel different…wrong…Bonnie…?"

Bonnie swallowed her sobs and gently laid her hand on her mother's shoulder to get her to rest against the pillows again. She didn't want to tell Abby what happened to her tonight, but there was no point in keeping the truth from her, from delaying the inevitable.

So she decided to give her the abbreviated version of what happened. Abby for her part sat and listened like a child who was being told a bedtime story. What happened didn't _really _happen to her but a character in a movie or a TV show. No, it wasn't possible. She couldn't be a….

Abby's thoughts shifted trajectory sharply as she smelled such a mouth watering scent coming from her immediate right. Her eyes landed on the blood bags and then a painful throb began to pound in her gums.

Abby clutched her mouth in a poor attempt to ward off the pain. Caroline understood what was happening and stepped forward.

She picked up a blood bad, and pulled the top open. "This is what your body is craving, and only what your body will crave…forever. But the decision to complete the transition is entirely up to you, Abby."

Abby stared at her daughter imploringly. "And if I don't drink that…I'll die?"

Bonnie quickly nodded her head as more tears rolled down her face.

"I-I can't leave you, Bonnie. I only just got you back," and her voice broke on that.

The dam broke and Bonnie's face crumpled as heart wrenching sobs was torn from her core, the very center of her life.

"I don't want you to die, mom, but I don't want you to be a vampire either."

Abby wiped her own tears away with the back of her hand as she ignored the alluring call of the blood.

"I'm dead either way," she said. "I'm too old to be a vampire."

Bonnie chortled, Caroline smiled, and Abby kept her eyes on the blood bag. Slowly she reached for the bag and Caroline, after checking with Bonnie, handed it over to Abby.

"If I do this," Abby finally looked away from the bag and darted her eyes between her daughter and Caroline, "you'll help me?"

"Yes," Bonnie answered, her voice finally finding conviction. "I'm not going to lose you again."

Abby swallowed and winced. Her throat was so dry it was like she did nothing but eat sand all day chased with tumbleweed and ash.

"Will this change…what's happening between us?" Abby questioned.

Bonnie shook her head. "No, it won't change anything," that may have been a partial lie. Of course things were going to change, but Bonnie couldn't lose her mom again. If she had to be a vampire—well it was a small step above being dead, but still…this wasn't what she wanted for her mother.

"I love you, Bonnie, know that I do."

Bonnie nodded her head. She wasn't quite ready to repeat those words yet. Abby was still virtually a stranger, but one day she knew her love for her would come.

Abby looked at her daughter one final time before closing her mouth over the opening of the bag and consumed the entire contents.

Bonnie felt her flesh crawl while she watched red veins undulated under Abby's eyes, and the whites of her eyes turned blood red. It was over. Abby was a vampire.

And Bonnie was once again alone.

* * *

><p><strong>Five days later…<strong>

_There they are_, Bonnie thought as she strolled into Mystic Grill. The last few days had been tough, that was a given, and Bonnie finally freed herself from the confines of her house. Her days had been spent listening to Caroline explain the odds and ends of being a vampire to Abby, while the two of them went out at night to hunt furry little animals.

Bonnie had offered to make a day walking ring for Abby, but she didn't trust herself around humans just yet and didn't mind being shut away in the house. Bonnie figured it was all for the best.

Several heads turned in her general direction as Bonnie headed over to the take out counter to put in an order. She had forgotten what voracious appetites vampires had. Caroline and her mother had cleaned out everything in the refrigerator, freezer, and the cabinets.

Bonnie paid very little attention to the people gawking at her as she strolled up to the counter where Matt stared at her a bit surprised to see her out and about. His eyes screamed pity and sympathy and she had a mind to slap him upside the head.

Last she checked she hadn't gone to any funerals.

"Bonnie, hey, how are you doing? I heard what happened."

Bonnie slid on to the stool and took off her leather jacket revealing the heavily detailed corseted top underneath. Matt's eyes kind of bulged because Bonnie tended to dress on the conservative side. It was hard to miss the subtle changes she had done to her appearance. Gone were her long, wavy tresses, her hair now stopped at her shoulders with dark red streaks peppered throughout. Her lips weren't covered in their customary clear gloss but with blood red lipstick as if she dipped them in paint. And her green eyes simply popped against her thick dark lashes.

Matt liked the look—a lot. It made Bonnie look dangerous and sexy at the same time but more than likely she was tilting towards the dangerous side more than anything else.

His eyes flicked over to the Salvatore boys who were consciously aware of the fact Bonnie was in the building.

"I'm sure you did hear what happened, Matt. Once again a perfectly good plan to kill Klaus backfired. And you want to know why? Elijah kidnapped Elena and presented the Salvatore douches with a choice. Who to save and who to sacrifice. And well, that seemed like a no brainer for them, they chose to screw me and my mom, and guess what Elena lives, and they're both still alone—girlfriendless!" she slapped her hands down on the counter top. "Kind of seems like a moot point don't you think?"

Bonnie picked up the menu, examined its contents before slapping it down and staring at Matt whose jaw was hanging open by its hinges.

"Bon, I know that being a vampire is the last thing you'd want for your mom, and I understand you're angry that everything seems to boil down to saving Elena…"

"If the words 'she's your best friend' is about to come from your mouth, I suggest you shove them down your throat. I know _exactly_ what she is. Elena's only concern is choosing which Salvatore she wants to dally with today whereas me and Caroline have to teach my mom the ropes of being a vampire. Don't you see the distortion, Matt?"

He numbly nodded his head. He really had no idea what to say. Bonnie was entitled to her anger. If he were in her shoes, he probably would have already staked both Stefan and Damon in their sleep. The fact they were still alive, proved how really generous Bonnie was being. For the time being that is.

She scoffed. "You know what…I think I'm going to go to the grocery store instead."

Bonnie picked up her leather jacket and was prepared to walk out of the restaurant when her path was blocked by two figures.

"Move," she said.

"Bonnie," Stefan began in that lets make love not war voice. "I am sorry about what we had to do…"

She held up a hand to silence his words. Stefan immediately stopped talking. She forced herself to look at Damon. He didn't look sad, sorry, repentant, or smug, he was just…Damon. He was probably hoping his dashing good looks and bedroom eyes would be enough to get him off the hook.

Wrong!

"The both of you are dead to me. If I could punch my fist through your chests, your hearts would be in my hands this instant. We are not friends. We are not associates. We are not acquaintances. We are not partners in crime. You are my enemy, and I plan and will kill you both. Might not be today. Might not be tomorrow. So my word of advice is, live in fear, gentlemen. Live. In. Fear."

She slapped them both of the cheek, smiled brightly before shouldering her way past them to make her exit.

Damon turned to his brother. "Well, that went well."

"Shut up, Damon," Stefan said and walked out of the Grill into the rays of the unrelenting sun. He couldn't brush off Bonnie's vow and act cavalier like Damon. He felt the truth of Bonnie's statement grip his heart and that's why he searched the parking lot covertly as he headed over to his brother's parked vehicle.

Damon prided himself on fearing no one, but he saw the rage lining Bonnie's eyes. Sure he's seen her mad and pissed off several times because usually he was the cause of it, but what he saw in her eyes gave even him the chills. He too was checking out the parking lot and walking a little less confidentially towards his car.

Just as he reached the trunk, his car exploded. Glass and metal instantly embedded into his skin and he was tossed backwards in the air some ten feet. He groaned loudly as he landed on the pavement. His ears rang, smoke clogged his dead lungs, and he felt the world spin.

Damon groggily looked around and saw that Stefan lied unconscious on the ground, half of his face was burned, and smoke rose from this clothing. As he continued to look around Damon saw—with his good eye- a figure standing not far from him—smirking.

Bonnie slipped her shades on, climbed gracefully into her car and pulled off. She pulled out her cell phone and dialed 911.

"Hi, I'd like to report a car fire at Mystic Grill…" she smiled.

* * *

><p>Two hours later Damon stormed into the boardinghouse with his cell phone pressed against his ear. Stefan flashed up to his room, too perturbed to say anything but mutter to himself. Damon could really careless.<p>

"Answer the phone," he said through gritted teeth and sighed when the line finally clicked on. "You need to get your friend under control."

There was silence on the other end before her raspy voice filled his eardrums. "She won't talk to me, Damon and quite frankly I'm tired of being put in the middle."

"She tried to kill me this afternoon and nearly succeed."

"Call this karma, Damon," Elena said unsympathetically. "But…she wouldn't be trying to kill you if it weren't for me…"

Damon scowled, "Yes, yes, yes, everything is your fault, great, but you need to pucker up those lips of yours and kiss some major ass and get Bonnie to give up her kill Damon and Stefan crusade."

"Here's a radical thought, have you tried apologizing for what you did, maybe explaining why you and your idiot brother made the decision you made?"

"Bonnie doesn't want to sit around and have a table discussion about that. She's out for blood."

"Not that I blame her," Elena attempted to say under her breath but Damon heard her anyway. "She was right. Every time I try to intervene she's the one who always ends up getting hurt. So I'm staying out of it, Damon. You're on your own. Good luck!"

Dial tone.

Damon stared at his phone as if it suddenly turned into a leprechaun before he chucked it across the room.

A thud sounded from upstairs.

"Stefan?"

Silence.

Damon had a mind to go and check up on him, but he wanted a drink more. So once he made the decision to make one, something pricked him in the back of the neck.

"The hell," he said and extracted whatever it was. "Dart…" he said just a moment before his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he landed on the hard floor below.

* * *

><p>Sometime later…<p>

His head was pounding and Damon groaned. He experimentally tried to move his body only to find out he couldn't.

He leaned his head back until it bounced against the high back chair. "This again, really?" he said to the dead air in the room. "Stefan!"

"I wouldn't waste my breath calling for Stefan. He's currently indisposed."

Damon was fully awake and alert now as he stared at Bonnie. "What the hell are you doing? Where's Stefan?"

Bonnie lifted a shoulder. "Locked in the basement with enough vervain in his system to keep him knocked out for a day or two. That gives us so much alone time, Damon."

"Bonnie," Damon squirmed against the shackles around his wrists and feet. "This isn't you. I know you're pissed about what I did and you have every right to be, but you don't torture people, you don't kill people."

"You're right, Damon I don't kill people. And guess what, vampires aren't people. They're creatures, abominations. Screw ups of nature."

Damon licked his lips nervously as he watched Bonnie slip her hands into a pair of black latex gloves.

"You know the first time I attempted to burn you alive, you were wearing far too many clothes."

His eyes widened considerably and Damon infinitesimally looked down at himself. He was tied stark naked to the chair. So that's why he was feeling a friendly little draft down below. When he wiggled his fingers he realized his ring was gone.

He began cursing over and over again in his head.

"Bonnie…" he attempted to rationalize with her but stopped when he noticed that his day walking ring was dangling around Bonnie's neck like a pendant.

"I've always been curious how a vampire's skin holds up against fire," she started up a blow torch. "Let's find out."

Chapter end.

**A/N: I cried a little when Damon turned Abby into a vampire because I was like one) she just found her mom and two) well there's never going to be any Bamon now. Bonnie is not like Elena who forgives him for every kill. Bonnie will more than likely hold on to her anger for a VERY long time. If you found this story to be OOC-whatever. Bonnie would have her evil way with Damon, but I haven't decided yet what his fate will be if I decide to continue this. But I couldn't not comment on tonight's episode. The blondes ruled tonight-Becks and Caroline. They said what we've all been saying for a very long time. Klaus is annoying and Elijah, so wanted to punch him the face. And Alaric...can dude catch a break. Jeeze. But anyways let me know what you think and have a wonderful night. Love you guys! **


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: This chapter contains graphic torture. Not suitable reading material for those under 18.**

Disclaimer: These characters are the creative property of LJ Smith and The CW. No copyright infringement is intended.

_The best form of torture is psychological torture—Bonnie Bennett_

This by far might be Bonnie's finest moment. She was in a position of total, absolute power. She didn't have to worry about interruptions or being subjected to having a guilty conscience if things weren't executed fully to plan. She had total autonomy here where she could shoot straight from the hip, not sugarcoat, or bite her tongue. Whatever she wanted to say—oh trust and believe she was going to say it. The two occupants of the house had no say in the matter, couldn't make a life and death decision based on the flip of a coin. She was officially running this ship.

Bonnie yanked Damon ruthlessly by the hair on the crown of his head earning a grimace and a grunt from the semi-conscious man. She slapped him clean across the face and watched as blood sprayed from his nose and dribbled from the corner of his mouth.

"You _disgust _me," she growled and slapped him across his other cheek, shifting his neck that she wondered for second if she had snapped it.

She didn't but she'd get to that eventually. Maybe. If he was good boy.

Bonnie stepped away, admired her handiwork for a moment taking note of the sporadic burns that covered seventy-five percent of his body. Bonnie giddily found out that vampire flesh burned just like regular old human flesh—in fact it turned out to be twice as flammable, almost too flammable because he had burned quicker than she could enjoy, and had to set down the blow torch for a moment.

But it was interesting to watch his skin splinter, bubble, and peel away revealing the dead fat below, the muscle, until finally she could see bone. Bonnie had decided to start with his left arm, and merely held the burning torch over the area ignoring Damon's man cries and pleas for mercy and to stop. She ignored when a crystal tear slid from the corner of his eye and rolled down his cheek. Merely held that sucker in place as she carried on a conversation with Caroline on her cell phone, checking on her mother's status.

Bonnie pulled the torch away to examine the damage. She winced a little, felt bile rise in the back of her throat, and then stuck her finger in the center of the burn and felt Damon jolt against the chains and the chair in a weak attempt to escape the indescribable pain.

"Did that hurt?" she asked cheekily before giggling. Damon didn't respond. Didn't even look at her.

"Maybe I should rub some butter on it and see if that'll help."

Damon didn't think anything could take away the numbing sensation that was crawling up his spine and settling in his jaws and at the base of his skull.

She repeated this process of picking a particular area of his body and holding the torch against it while he grunted, nearly biting his lips and tongue off while doing anything to take his mind off the excruciating pain.

Of course his actions were in vain because nothing helped.

Bonnie slipped her hands out of the latex gloves and tossed them negligently aside. The room smelled like a mix of burning candle wax and ammonia. Whew, vampires stunk when you burned them. She had a mind to open up a window and let some fresh air circulate around, but why give Damon false hope that his torture might be nearing its end.

It was merely beginning.

"You know, Damon," Bonnie began as she pulled out a bottle of water and took a sip from it. "When you first moved into town, instinct told me you were going to be nothing but trouble. No man who looks as good as you could have a conscience or a soul, and you know what?" she smacked her lips together. "You proved my hypothesis right. I wanted Elena and Caroline and everyone else to stay away from you, but they for some reason decided to keep giving you chances, kept forgiving you," Bonnie carefully enunciated that last part.

"And once I learned the truth about what you were, oh my hatred for you doubled. You pretended to want to protect me only to get Emily's necklace back so you could free Katherine, and when Emily did the right thing by destroying it, you attacked me."

Bonnie sat down on the coffee table and crossed her legs. She stared earnestly at Damon whose breathing was very labored. She figured it had been a while since he fed on blood and was growing considerably weaker with each passing moment. She couldn't muster up an ounce of sympathy to care.

"Yet…as time wore on, and I placed that little event behind me, and I reluctantly worked with you and your brother all to keep Elena safe…I lost my Grams and you never even offered your condolences. Not like I would have accepted it, but it would have been nice to hear 'I'm sorry you lost your grandmother, the only person who ever gave a damn about you.' Did any of that happen?" she shook her head in the negative.

"I allowed you and Stefan to manipulate me, to play on my heart strings in not losing Elena. I channeled my power for you, put my life at risk each and every single time I needed to do a spell, and yet…you were still willing to let me die all so you could continue to pine for a _girl _who would never love you. Now does any of that make a lick of sense?"

She grew silent and opened the floor for him to respond. Damon's vision kept going in an out of focus. Yeah, Bonnie had burned his eyes too, and they were slowly repairing themselves during her dissertation.

Bonnie cupped her ear. "I can't hear you, Damon. Speak up!"

He shook his head. "No, it doesn't make sense."

She smiled stiffly. "Don't say what you think I want to hear. Speak from your heart, Damon."

He groaned as his head lolled to the side. "You're right, Bonnie. About everything. Nothing mattered to me except being with Elena."

"Thank you for your honesty. I knew I could count on you," she winked and rose to her feet again. Bonnie at that time dug around the bag she came with and extracted a crossbow.

If his heart still had a beat it would have been racing like a crackhead on cocaine.

Bonnie strolled back to stand directly in front of Damon yet she stood some distance away. "Despite your faults, and there are many, the more we worked together, the more I allowed myself to trust you. Perhaps that was my fault for trusting a sonofabitch, such as yourself, but I digress. I thought our days of stabbing one another in the back were over, that we had moved beyond such childish displays of violence and over reaction, but then," all calmness fled Bonnie's face and was replaced by cold rage. "You turned my mother into a vampire."

"You took my trust in you, Damon and murdered it in cold blood," she aimed the crossbow, pulled the trigger and grinned when an arrow stabbed Damon clean through the shoulder.

"Arggghhhh"

She fired again, this time aiming a little lower and striking him somewhere near his kidney.

"Sh*ttttttttttt"

Bonnie fired once more, and this time, shot him in the center of his chest, barely missing his heart.

Blood poured from his mouth.

"Okay," he groaned. "I hurt you…I took from you, Bonnie…but…I didn't…I didn't kill you."

She laughed. "You did kill me, Damon," she contradicted. "All you and Stefan ever do is kill what's good in someone, and you think nothing of it. You go about your day and pat yourselves on the back because you did what you felt was necessary to keep Elena alive. Screw the rest of us. We're nothing but pawns, expendable pawns. So long as a single hair on her pretty little head isn't harmed, so what if someone's father or mother dies…big deal, right?"

She shot him in the knee cap next.

"Urggghhhh." How many arrows did that thing have?

"It's not like that," Damon attempted to argue.

Bonnie slung the crossbow over her shoulder, her finger still very much on the trigger. She looked at him curiously.

"How's it like then?"

Honestly, Damon was stuck because he wasn't sure how to explain that. He had only said what he said to get her to stop shooting him with arrows.

"Things happen…things we don't have any control over."

"Un-hun, tell me something I'm not painfully aware of. If this is you making your case you might want to fire your attorney."

He couldn't help it, he had to chuckle at that.

"You think I'm funny?"

"No, ma'am," he quickly responded.

"Well, I'm going to be freaking hilarious in a little bit," Bonnie sat the crossbow down and unsheathed a vintage eighteen century dagger.

She sauntered over to Damon swaying her hips back and forth as if she were performing a special dance just for him. In a way she was, the dance of no mercy.

Bonnie loomed over him, resting her left hand on the arm of the chair, and peered deep into his eyes.

"I want you to admit the truth, Damon. I want you to admit that you would have gladly killed both me and my mom, no questions asked just so you could pine away for Elena for the rest of your pecker sucking life. I want you to admit that despite the many times I've come through and saved your ungrateful ass that you've taken me for granted, used me for your own gain and agenda, and could really careless about my fate either way. I want you to admit that if I freed you right now, you'd kill me because I hurt your feelings. Go ahead, admit it."

The whole time she was talking Damon could do nothing but shake his head back and forth.

"Go ahead, Damon," Bonnie growled. "Go ahead and say 'I'm an ungrateful sumabitch', say it just like that. Say it!"

"I'm an ungrateful sumabitch," he repeated like a parrot in lieu of the pain lancing through his body.

"And I deserve to die at the hands of Bonnie Bennett," she added on.

Damon hesitated for a second before uttering, "And I deserve to die at the hands of Bonnie Bennett."

Bonnie smiled, stroked his cheek, and plunged the knife in his upper thigh and twisted it for good measure. His mouth opened but no sound could come out. The tendons around his neck distended. This was kind of painful to watch.

"Don't worry. We'll get there soon enough."

Bonnie pulled the dagger from his thigh, walked back to her bag and retrieved a hypodermic needle filled with vervain.

"It's time for you to take a nap," she injected him with the poison and watched as his head fell forward until his chin crashed into his chest.

"Stefan and I need to have a little chat."

* * *

><p>Bonnie swung the door open to the basement, to that special little room Stefan had locked Damon in for suicide watch after he had been bitten by Tyler and was intent on killing himself. He was chained to a chair much in the same fashion as his older brother, but he was only naked from the waist up. She really had no interest in seeing his balls because quite honestly she didn't think he had any to begin with.<p>

She flicked on the light flooding the room in horrible florescent lighting. Stefan's head hung forward and a stream of drool was coming out of his mouth, wetting his jeans. Bonnie grimaced but continued into the room, dragging a folding chair behind her. She propped it up not far from Stefan, gingerly took a seat, and then, kicked him clean in the groin with her stiletto to get him to wake up.

Stefan gasped loudly, coughed, and grunted. Bonnie wiggled her fingers at him when he was able to focus his attention on her.

"Bonnie?" he said and tried to move only to discover he was heavily restrained to a chair. This brought back terrible memories of being captured by Lexi's ghost while she worked her starvation hallucination on him.

He stiffened considerably and tried to augment the power to his ears to ascertain where his brother might be. Stefan could detect nothing.

Then, his eyes dropped to the item Bonnie held in her hands. It was a blood bag.

Instantly his thirst flared to life and against his will his face began to change. His fangs broke through his gums—his weakness was on full display.

"Thirsty?" Bonnie taunted and threw the bag across the room and watched in satisfaction as it burst against the wall, painting it in a gruesome shade of red. "That's too damn bad, Stefan."

"Bonnie, please. You know I didn't want to hurt you. You have to believe I didn't want to have to hurt you or your mom."

"But you did anyways, Stefan. You stabbed me in the back after I agreed to help you hide Klaus' coffins. I was willing to sacrifice my life to save your girlfriend. Did I ever get a thank you? Did anyone stop to ask me how I felt about anything? No, because you figured I'd go with the plan because it was Elena."

Stefan gulped nervously as he listened to the hysteria rise in Bonnie's voice.

Bonnie continued. "Yes, I was naïve enough once to want to throw my life away in order to save Elena because she was my best friend, my sister, and you and your degenerate brother took advantage of that. You two decided by the flip of coin which of you would sever the Bennett bloodline," she clapped her hands in mock admiration. "You got what you wanted. Do you feel proud of yourself?"

Stefan licked his lips nervously and shook his head. "I haven't done anything worthy of feeling proud of in months, Bonnie. What I did to you and your mother…you can add to the list of things I wish I had never done."

"Sorry, but I don't give a shit about lists. Or your guilt. Yeah, we've all lost someone we cared about. We're all allowed to grieve and feel angry and pissed off, but…you were going to _kill _me as if I were some stranger on the street. After all the times we saved one another…that's how you were going to repay me? That's what you do to the people you come to, to save you week after week?"

Bonnie shot off the chair, closed the distance between them and stabbed Stefan in the back with a stake.

"Argghhhhh," he cried out.

"One good back stabbing deserves another," Bonnie said, and then grabbed Stefan by the neck and twisted with as much force as she could muster. His bones snapped like twigs.

With him out for the count, Bonnie slid his day walking ring off his finger.

"Now it's time for phase two."

* * *

><p>Phase two consisted of binding the Salvatore boys in a sun filled room without their day walking rings. While they were unconscious Bonnie had confiscated all the curtains, and magically bolted anything that they might try to use to block out the sunlight. They were now hovering in separate corners, contorting their bodies to stay out of the path of direct light.<p>

"This is what I meant when I said to be a villain you have to be smart. She's thought of everything," Damon said and curled himself tighter into a ball as the sunlight continued to inch its way closer to his feet. Bonnie had tossed him a bone and left him pair of pants to change into.

Stefan was barely conscious. The car explosion from the day before, the fact she staked him, and he hadn't consumed a drop of human blood in weeks left him severely malnourished and weakened. Stefan wasn't sure how much longer he'd be able to last before he began to breakdown, but from the looks of things, Bonnie wasn't going to stop her torture anytime soon.

"Have you apologized?" Stefan asked, his throat hoarse and gravelly.

Damon scoffed and then felt a singe on his arm. He scooted over more. His body was already pressed so far up against the wall it was a miracle he hadn't gone through it.

"I think I did more begging than apologizing."

"She's right. Everything she said about us…she's right. We've done nothing but hurt that girl. And for what? For a woman we're both too chicken to admit we want to be with."

Of course Bonnie was right but that didn't mean she had to torture them to prove her point, were Damon's thoughts.

"I get that she's upset," Damon went on to say. "But this is a bit extreme. Even for her."

Stefan scoffed at that. "Thus says the man who perfected the art of tying someone to a chair and ripping out their heart."

"F*ck it, Stefan! I'm not going to apologize for loving Elena. Okay, sure we could have thought things through and not _always _go for the easy solution and off someone when a crucial decision had to be made, but Bonnie would have hated herself if Elena died because of _her._ And she knows it."

His brother was simply unbelievable. Stefan already knew that, it was pretty much public knowledge, but to hear him actually say that out loud—he wouldn't be mad at Bonnie if she did decide to waste his brother, waste them both actually.

"And you question why she hates you," Stefan said. "We're cowards, Damon because we always try to take the easy way out."

"Whatever. We're vampires, Stefan…and we gotta figure out a way to get ourselves out of this."

"Why bother? After everything we've done to the people who lost their lives because of us…why should we get to continue to live?"

"Because," Damon was feeling petulant and pissed off now. "For everyone who died, we saved just as many lives."

Stefan's smile was sardonic at best. "We aren't heroes, Damon. And neither one of us should have come back here."

Bonnie kept them bound in the room for three straight days before she showed up again, this time bringing a special friend with her.

Both vampires kind of hissed out of hunger when Bonnie pulled a sinfully cute English angora rabbit out of a crate from the safety of the atrium where she could roam freely, but the vampires couldn't enter.

Speaking of which, the looks on the vampires' faces was feral at best and Bonnie was a little surprised Damon would stoop to the level of drinking animal blood. Was he _really _that hungry?

Only one way to find out.

"You brought us dinner," Damon said keeping his eyes locked on the animal cuddling in Bonnie's arms.

"No, why would I do that?" she scoffed. "I just want the two of you to meet my new friend. Want to know her name?"

Bonnie sat the animal down on the floor who immediately began exploring its new environment.

"Stefan, Damon meet Elena."

They were not amused by this.

"Fatal Attraction much?" said Damon.

Bonnie could only smile. "Now you guys can chase her tail all around this house. Sort of like what you're used to doing."

With those parting words, Bonnie began to head for the door. She heard Stefan and Damon make a move towards the rabbit, pushing and jostling one another, but when they were a foot away from "Elena" the blood vessels in their heads began to burst and their brains felt like they were being lit on fire and equally liquefied.

"Oh," Bonnie said coyly. "Did I forget to mention that if you get within a foot of Elena, your brain will spontaneously combust? I don't know how that slipped my mind. Ah well. I'll be back in a few days."

The brothers looked at one another. Bonnie was now the epitome of evil.

They wasted hours watching that damn rabbit hop around and burrow itself on the sofa, under the desk, and wherever else suited its fancy. A few times they tried to lunge for it to test the strength of the binding spell Bonnie placed on it, and when their brains burned like mental ingestion, they finally gave up and started to avoid it if it grew too curious about them and began hopping after them.

Damon was currently sitting on top of the desk while Elena eyed him from the arm of the sofa.

"This is tdamn ridiculous. I'm starving and running from a rabbit…that's it. I'm done. She can kill me now."

The front door chose at that precise moment to swing open. In walked Bonnie wearing tight leather pants, a dark purple corset that laced in the front that she paired with a military inspired pea coat.

"I'm glad you feel that way," she said and aimed two dart guns, one at Damon the other at Stefan and pulled the trigger.

The next time they came to they were chained to their respective thrones once again.

"I think I've given you two enough time to think about what you've done," she began when they were lucid enough and fairly coherent. "The choices you've made throughout your prolonged history were despicable, and yet you've learned nothing. Having family and friends mean very little to you, and because of that, I'm going to give you a choice."

"Can I say something?" Damon interrupted Bonnie who was reaching for her trusty bag of tricks once more.

"What do you possibly have to say you'd think I'd want to hear?"

"An…apology."

Bonnie smirked. "You think saying you're sorry is going to fix this? You forced your blood down my mother's throat, you snapped her neck…and you think saying 'I'm sorry' is gonna cut it?"

"I know it's not but it's a place to start."

"Then you should have started on the night you actually did it, Damon," she seethed. "You want to know what your attitude was that night? Bonnie was just reunited with her mother; she doesn't really like her so she won't mind it so much if I turn her."

"Bonnie," Stefan attempted to intervene on his brother's behalf. "That's not how it happened. _I _was the one who was supposed to kill either you or your mom…but Damon…he stepped in…"

Hearing this gave Bonnie pause for a second or two. "So you wouldn't be the bad guy. Doesn't matter. The fact the thought even crossed your minds and was acceptable is what I have a problem with. You probably didn't even blink when Elijah told you that in order to break his mother's access to our power that one of us had to die."

Guilty.

"And you can save the excuse that your lack of humanity is the reason for it, what the fudge ever, Stefan. You've never been a good actor or liar and every time I look at you all I see is pain. You want to redeem yourself, make everything all sunshine and rainbows again?"

Bonnie reached inside her bag and pulled out a roll of quarters. She opened it up and spilled the contents on the coffee table and picked one up.

"You can decide how your brother dies. Heads—I drive a stake through his heart. Tails—I leave him bolted right there and let the sun take care of the rest in the morning."

She began flipping the quarter in the air.

Stefan closed his eyes in regret. "Bonnie you don't want to do this."

"You think you know me."

"I know you have a good and pure heart. I know you wouldn't want to do something you'd regret later. Or do anything that would hurt..."

"I would stop speaking if I were you," she warned. "I know exactly what card you're about to pull out. And let me just say, for the record, Elena doesn't know what she wants. She can drag you two through the mud for the rest of her life and you'd let her because you're weak and spineless. It would take courage to walk away and leave her alone—and that goes for me too, but I've made my peace with the situation. I suggest you make yours."

"So this is it?" Damon questioned. "The final hour for Stefan and Damon Salvatore?"

"Appears that way," Bonnie shrugged.

"I deserve it, no bones about it. I've been a monster for a century and more. I've killed, hunted, maimed without thought or feeling. I've ruined lives, families, broken trusts. Yet I've been given a pass time after time again because I play on people's emotions. It's what I do. It's how I win. And yet, you've been the only person I've encountered in a hundred and fifty years who's called me on my shit, and told me about myself to my face."

"Bravo, Damon. Game recognizes game. The time for screwing around is over," she then brought her eyes to Stefan. "You have a decision to make. Heads? Or Tails?"

He went the route of turning mute all of a sudden. Bonnie figured he would so she began channeling power at Stefan literally crushing him from the inside.

Damon had no idea what was going on as he sat and watched as Stefan grunted in pain.

"Heads or tails, Stefan!"

"No!"

She increased the pressure. "Pick one!" she demanded.

She was only gifted with the sounds of his roar.

Damon watched helplessly and knew that whatever Bonnie was doing to his brother, she was only seconds away from killing him. Stefan was far weaker than he was at the moment, and it wouldn't be long before he was dead.

"Stake me!" Damon said.

Bonnie stopped her attack, grabbed the stake she had hidden in her coat pocket, and shrugged. "Okay."

She plunged the wood deep into Damon's chest right in his heart.

Stefan was wide-eyed and began thrusting against the chair hoping to find a weak spot in the chains to free himself.

Bonnie watched as Damon's skin began to turn gray and scale over.

"Damon! No!" Stefan sobbed from his seat as he continued to fight against the chains.

Damon's eyes closed, his head fell forward and there was absolutely no movement from him. Bonnie tilted her chin up defiantly for a second. The feeling that washed over her was simply indescribable.

"Do you feel better?" Stefan asked.

"Yes and no. Yes because I've always wanted to stake a vampire. And no, because my actions…have made me no better than you or him."

And with that, Bonnie grabbed the stake and pulled it out of Damon's chest.

Stefan merely watched his brother. After spending so many years hating each other, fighting each other at every single twist and turn, Stefan wouldn't have thought he'd feel so mortally alone without his brother around. Now that Damon was gone he felt he lost a huge part of his identity. He didn't know how to be just Stefan Salvatore. He thought he would have smiled the day his brother was finally killed off the face of the planet, but all Stefan could feel was heart wrenching grief.

"I'm so so sorry," Stefan mumbled quietly.

Bonnie wasn't sure who he was apologizing to. Not like it mattered. Minutes ticked by.

Then suddenly Damon gasped loudly startling Stefan so bad he almost swallowed his tongue.

Damon blinked his eyes, looked around, his chest heaving painfully. "What…what…" he repeated unable to find a coherent thought to latch on to.

Stefan simply looked lost and spooked.

Bonnie dropped the stake to the floor. Damon reached her eyes and stared at her wearily.

"I wanted to teach you a lesson," she began. "I am not someone to mess with. The next time I stick that in…it will be permanent. You've hurt me in the worst way, Damon, and now you know what it feels like to have someone treat your life like it's a trivial game, like it's a piece of crap stuck on your shoe. Death would have been too easy for you. And why should you be at peace while the rest of us live with our suffering?" she bent down so they could be eye-level. "Welcome to the brotherhood."

And with parting words, Bonnie walked out of the Salvatore boardinghouse for good.

**A/N: The epilogue is to follow and then I'll be wrapping this little baby up. Thanks for reading and venting! Love you guys!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Truth I had no idea how I wanted to end this vengeful Bonnie fic. But after a lot of soul searching I think I found the right way to tie this all up nicely. So here goes…**

Disclaimer: These characters are the creative property of LJ Smith and The CW. No copyright infringement is intended.

"_I wanted to teach you a lesson," she began. "I am not someone to mess with. The next time I stick that in…it will be permanent. You've hurt me in the worst way, Damon, and now you know what it feels like to have someone treat your life like it's a trivial game, like it's a piece of sh*t stuck on your shoe. Death would have been too easy for you. And why should you be at peace while the rest of us live with our suffering?" she bent down so they could be eye-level. "Welcome to the brotherhood." _

Five years later and those words still reverberated in Damon's head whenever he had a moment of reflection. Right now he sat at his desk, armed with a pen, paper lying blank underneath his hand. He was stuck on how to tie this all together, how to apologize in the best way. It was laughable that after five years nothing still came to mind; nothing was ever good enough to convey what a true monster and villain he was.

Bonnie's tuition had messed with and gotten to him in ways that having Katherine and Elena reject him seem like they just said they didn't want to play with him in the sandbox. There really was no comparison, no other event he could think of that really made him hate himself as much as the last night he saw Bonnie.

Right after Alaric stopped by, after having been contacted by Bonnie to loosen their restraints, he took a week off from any and all activities in a desperate attempt to get his life back on track. Stefan, more sullen than ever, packed a single suitcase and vanished. Damon had wanted to leave as well but there was nowhere he wanted to go, and he knew there was still a lot of damage control he had to do.

First of course would have been to personally apologize to Abby Bennett for what he did. Second, was to of course kiss Bonnie's feet and promise he'd be on his best behavior from here on out. Third, was to make amends with Elena although intuition told him that ship had already sailed.

However, none of the above happened.

Damon was afraid to step outside of his house. Had he been that thoroughly trained to fear the unexpected that he felt safer in the place where he was tortured? What was the name of the syndrome where a person who's kidnapped and abused began to trust their abuser? He couldn't exactly remember it but part of him simply couldn't face the outside world.

Why? He wasn't really sure. He just knew that nothing good waited for him on the other side of the door.

But Damon remembered Alaric's face—resigned, pinched. Alaric was the voice of the "people" the human people that was, the one who fought his way on to the council. The one who, week after week was turned into a sacrificial lamb, a pin cushion, a crash dummy. He might not have approved of Bonnie's tactic but he wasn't going to hold it against her all things considered. Damon had been the one to turn Alaric's wife into a vampire. He was also indirectly or directly responsible for Jenna being turned into a vampire to break the curse on Klaus. If anyone should have tied his wilted butt to a chair and tortured for hours on end, it should have been him.

Yet, Alaric kept his opinions to himself that night. Merely walked in, broke their chains, and walked back out.

And Damon certainly wasn't in the mood for snarky or witty commentary. His chest burned, every single part of his body was sore and in pain. He simply wanted to forget what happened, wash the blood and gore off his body, and fall into a dreamless sleep.

When he woke up two days later, Stefan was gone, and Damon didn't have a single ally or friend left in town.

Being hated and feared was nothing new to him, but he wasn't exactly prepared for total abandonment. So the first person he went to go see was Elena. She was teary eyed, red nosed, and partially disheveled. She didn't even invite him in.

Damon said two words, "Stefan's gone."

Elena wiped her dripping nose with the back of her hand and nodded her head. She held up a letter. "I know. He left this for me."

They were silent for a while before Damon said, "I'm still here…for you."

Elena scoffed at that. "The people I need, Damon, they're gone. What would it say about me if I just so easily let you back into my life? I've had a lot of time to think about things, and when I did, nothing tips in your favor. You killed my best friend's mother, you snapped my brother's neck in front of me, you snapped my guardian's neck in front of me, you attacked my other best friend's father in front of me. I'm sorry, but…you're not the type of person I want or need around me, Damon. I really hope you learned something from all of this. Because you just lost everything."

She had slammed the door in his face for good and Damon couldn't muster up an inkling of anger to say anything in his defense.

She and everyone else were right about him.

Yet he didn't run. He never left town. He endured the dark looks, the snickers, the whispering whenever he stepped into a room.

Caroline had glared at him as he took his customary seat at the bar and order his favorite drink. She didn't hold back her tongue lashing, whipped him good and thorough, and blamed him for each and every bad thing that happened including the rain that suddenly came down in sheets that night.

"Bonnie and her mother left town, and I'm happy they're gone because now they can have a real future, a real life that doesn't involve backhanded schemes to keep a certain girl alive. Are you proud of what you've done? Of the lives you've screwed up? When will it ever end with you, Damon, hun, when will it end?"

He didn't know.

His brother left him high and dry without uttering a single peep. Not like anything he could have said would have changed Stefan's mind. Yeah, Damon felt regret and guilt percolate in his system and he tried to medicate it with alcohol binges and insomnia but nothing he tried worked.

Whenever he closed his eyes he saw nothing but the pain and rage on Bonnie's face. When he wondered the silent halls of the boardinghouse, the voices of his brother, Elena, Bonnie, Caroline, Alaric, every life he touched howled in his eardrums saying what a worthless piece of crap he was.

He couldn't disagree.

His road to recovery was rocky, unstable, filled with potholes, trenches, and chasms. He kept his distance from Elena, still looked after her because he convinced himself that's what he was good at doing. He tried to be a better friend to Ric, when Ric would let him, and every night, he'd sit down at his desk, pull out a fresh sheet of paper and would wait for the words to come.

He'd stare down at his new day walking ring—a ring he paid a fortune for because no witch on the eastern seaboard wanted to do business with him—hoping that it would spark some type of inspiration.

Nothing came to mind.

And he was still at it.

This weekend was Alaric's wedding. He was marrying the hot psycho doctor who tried to kill him. According to Alaric it was all a "little" misunderstanding and they were inseparable from that night on. Damon couldn't be mad at him or question his judgment. He was a vampire who was barely hanging on to the last visages of his life, living in a town where no one wanted him around, and he was going to question Ric about his choice in a spouse?

Didn't seem right and it wasn't his place.

Damon had forfeited a lot because of that one night back in 2012.

He knew that Bonnie had been extended an invitation but no one knew if she would be coming. It would make his first time seeing her in five years. He wondered if she was still the same wide-eyed, full of life girl he first met when he moved back to Mystic Falls who turned into a somewhat cynical and stern young woman who didn't trust his kind as far as she could throw one. Her powers, notwithstanding, she could throw a vampire pretty far.

And Damon also wasn't sure if Stefan would show up either. Damon would receive a postcard every eight to ten months or so from Stefan letting him know he was still alive and breathing. There was no point in him responding back because he was sure Stefan was already off to his next destination by the time he received the card.

Just as well.

Did he miss his little brother? Yes and no. They were at their worst when they were together. So the time apart was therapeutic for the both of them. But he did miss having him around because at least he could pick on him to make himself feel better.

But this whole apologizing, letter writing thing Damon was really having a hard time with. Everything that came to mind almost sounded condescending and sarcastic. And even if he managed to write something that expressed how truly sorry he was for not only destroying her trust in him and for killing her mom, there was no guarantee Bonnie wouldn't burn the letter on sight if she knew ahead of time it was from him.

Some might say this was the coward's way of apologizing, but this was taking far more courage than he had in years. And if he were to be honest with himself, Damon would admit to being slightly terrified of facing Bonnie again.

It was no secret the girl—she was twenty-four years old—he had to remind himself of that, but Bonnie could hold on to a grudge like a republican with money. And she made it pointedly clear that what he did to Abby, hurt her in the worst way.

He seriously didn't think five years was long enough for her to forgive and forget.

Damon attempted to write the first thing that popped up in his mind, but then he stopped. Maybe the words would come easier once he saw her and could make the connection again. He could still remember all the little details of her face because vampires had slight photographic memory, but with disuse the picture kind of faded a bit.

He slapped the pen on the desk, checked the time on the small antique clock that sat perched on the desk, and then grabbed his leather jacket. He had a memorial ceremony to get to.

IIIIII

He wasn't sure if it was good to have your wedding the day after the town congregates to remember the dead. Some people believe rain on your wedding day is a good omen, but having a town festival to remember those who lost their lives—Damon wasn't so sure that set anyone in the mood to watch someone get hitched.

Those where his thoughts as he walked through the arboretum admiring the wrought-iron candelabras that sat on linen covered tables. On each branch of the candelabra, dangled a votive candle and engraved into the iron was a name of the deceased. People milled out about, huddled in large groups, or in pairs, or the occasional single as they cried or laughed at remembering something about their fallen family member or loved one.

There were plenty of names Damon recognized and out of respect kept it moving. Very few people would want his condolences.

His feet stopped suddenly once he neared the back and he refused to blink his eyes, in case the sight in front of him disappeared.

He watched as Bonnie Bennett, the one person he had been dreading running into, stood next to a candelabra blowing on the wick until it ignited. Using magic in public was something she had avoided doing, but it would seem she let those cautionary actions fade in the background. The last time Damon saw her, her hair was shoulder length with blood red highlights. She had let it grow out and it nearly touched her waist. She was dressed in a simple yet elegant black tunic that hit her around the knees which she paired with sky high snake skin stilettos.

He could only see her face in profile. Surprisingly she still looked young, but her body was mature and endowed with voluptuous curves that any man with a pulse would appreciate.

With his eye sight he could make out the name of the person whose candle Bonnie lit in honor. It was her grandmother.

She studied the flame for a second, closed her eyes, and appeared as if she were in prayer. The other lit candles began to glow a little brighter and some people were taken aback by that while others marveled. Damon kept his attention rapt on Bonnie as her lips stretched into a smile. When she opened her eyes, the candles began to burn dimly once again. She pressed two fingers to her mouth, kissed them, and then touched Sheila's name. She then walked out of the arboretum through the back entrance.

His feet commanded that he follow her, but Damon was no dummy. He stayed rooted to his spot.

In the glimpse he got of her all those feelings he ever had about Bonnie rushed back. There were few people he could honestly say he respected and when he thought about it, she was on the top of his list.

After he was sure it was safe, Damon exited the arboretum and saw Bonnie make her way over to Caroline. His eyes shifted a bit and he noticed Abby who looked breathtakingly beautiful, and beside her was…

"Lucy," he was thoroughly surprised to see her. He remembered her face, yet at the time they met they didn't exchange names, but he recalled Jeremy telling him during one of their "bonding" sessions that the witch who helped Katherine the night of the Masquerade Ball was Bonnie's cousin.

All three women looked similar when they stood next to one another. They shared the same caramel complexion, the same long thick dark hair, those same alluring dark green eyes.

He listened into their conversation, hiding himself in the shadows.

"I'm just so glad you're here," Caroline was gushing.

"I had to be here for Alaric. He really helped me through a tough time."

A question mark formed over Damon's head. Ric helped Bonnie? When did that happen? And more importantly why didn't he know about it?

"Are you sure you're all right, Bon? He-he's still here. He still lives here and he'll be at the wedding tomorrow. I don't know why Ric chose him as his best man."

Bonnie hesitated in responding. She shared a look with her mother whose eyes only narrowed infinitesimally. Damon wasn't sure how to decode that look. Were they planning on ambushing him?

"I'm not worried about Damon," Bonnie finally responded and he could hear the malice dripping off her tongue when she reluctantly spoke his name. "So long as he stays away from me, we won't have any problems."

Damon stopped listening to their conversation and headed over to the church for the rehearsal.

IIIIII

There was a reason why he liked small weddings. It meant you only had to practice things twice and everyone could go home. Meredith only had one bridesmaid to compliment Ric's lone groomsmen. No more than fifteen—if even that many—people had been invited to the wedding. The couple wanted it to be small private and quick, and that's exactly what they were getting.

Now the wedding party and guests were enjoying booze, crab legs, shrimp, and all sorts of seafood delicacies at Mystic Grill.

Bonnie, Abby, and Lucy were cutting a rug. So far they hadn't spared him a single thought, narrowed eye, or threat. He truly was dead to them and like he said before he was used to it and it wouldn't bother him, except in this case there was so much he wanted and needed to get off his chest, Damon wasn't sure how much longer he'd be able to hold it in.

He sat on the outskirts no longer desiring to be in the thick of things, nursing a beer, and watching everyone else enjoy themselves.

This should have been his role from the beginning. Watching human life and not being a part of it. Instead he went the opposite route and enshrined himself and as a result he did a lot of f*cked up things to a lot of innocent people.

Elena was there, smiling and happy that she was reunited with her two childhood friends. Her relationship with Bonnie never fully repaired itself after Bonnie left town. They talked occasionally but it wasn't the way it used to be.

Damon felt responsible for that as well.

Yet it was clear that Bonnie maintained her friendship with Caroline, for the two girls were inseparable as they went from one end of the restaurant to the other, laughing, hugging, crying, and dancing with one another.

The married-couple-to-be merely stayed seated at the table, wrapped around each other basking in their love.

All of this should have sickened Damon, but what it really did was make him sad.

He had wanted happiness, of the unadulterated kind and instead…he could do nothing but walk the face of the earth alone.

Needing a moment from all the happiness that was choking him like a noose, Damon stepped out for some fresh air.

At first he merely leaned against the brick wall and thought of nothing. After a while he headed towards his new classic car, pulling the keys from his pocket.

A whistle of wind sounded from behind him and his keys were snatched from his hands. Damon groaned and stopped walking and then focused his eyes on Abby Bennett.

She stood across from him with her arms folded over her fitted black dress.

"Give me one good reason not to kill you where you stand?" she began without preamble.

"Because I'm already dead," he responded cheekily.

"I only wanted to have a moment of your time, Damon, and if Bonnie knew what I was doing…let's just say she wouldn't be too pleased with me."

A worried look crossed Damon's face.

"For a long time I held on to my anger about what happened to me. At knowing that two vampires my daughter trusted betrayed her all in the name of keeping her best friend alive. I'm sure you thought your actions were noble and that you weren't 'really' killing me, but your betrayal and the way you executed it hurt my daughter beyond measure.

"You don't know what it's like to see your child in constant pain and not being able to do anything about it. Of listening to her cry herself to sleep, or push her body to create new spells knowing she might give herself a heart attack because she's just too stubborn to quit. But somehow, someway things did get better. She's held on to her anger for so long I thought it would rule her, but I had to spell it out for my child.

"I left her when she was a baby and I never looked back. I knew I'd be punished for what I did, and I thought losing my magic was that punishment," Abby shook her head sadly. "But it wasn't. Becoming this," she waved her hand over herself, "like you," she pointed at him, "that's my punishment for leaving such an amazing girl behind because of my fear. I had to make peace with what happened to me, and no it wasn't an easy process and I do still grapple with it, but…I had to tell Bonnie to accept what I am because that's what I had to do.

"The way she looked at me, you would have thought I slapped her. She's sensitive and she wears her heart on her sleeve, but she's toughened up, perhaps she's too tough now, but I love her and I won't let _anyone _hurt her again. As far as I'm concerned, they just signed their death certificate."

Abby took a step closer to Damon. She didn't have a single conversation with him while she was human, but she was sure he never looked his broken a single day in his life.

"If you're at all sorry for what you've done to my family…this may be your last and final chance to convey that to Bonnie because after tomorrow we're _never _coming back. Release her from her hurt, anger, and pain, Damon. That's all I want from you."

Abby stepped back , tossed him his keys, and then vanished.

IIIIII

Her cheeks were splitting her face in half because she couldn't stop smiling. Bonnie dropped her sling backs on the floor next to the bed. She yawned once and scratched the back of her neck and that's when she became aware that something was lying innocently on her bed.

Tentatively Bonnie reached for the square shaped envelope. Only her name was written in an elegant script across the front, no return address. Hmm. Someone left her note.

Taking a seat on the edge of the bed, she slid a finger under the flap and ripped open the envelope. She withdrew a neatly folded letter, and unfolded it.

_Bonnie,_

_I hope you won't burn this once you realize who it's from. I've done a lot of things I should have lost my life over, yet I always found a loophole to survive. But mostly I know I owe my survival to you. Our association was rocky in the beginning, and overtime it grew to something of a twisted friendship, a friendship I took for granted, I can admit that now. You were someone I figured would always be around and that I didn't have to put in any effort to maintain. I used you for my own gain and in the end, I managed to hurt one of the few people I respected._

_I can't apologize enough for the trust that I broke, and the pain I caused you in turning your mother into a vampire. I was single-minded, reckless, and a real bastard back then. I know words aren't enough to make things right, but it's a place to start in showing you that you've taught me the most about myself. You opened my eyes to the type of person I was, and I was not someone anyone should like or trust. I've hurt you time after time again, and everything you did—I deserved it. I didn't mean to chase you away from the only home you knew, nor did I mean to come between your friendship with Elena. _

_As much as you might not believe me, Bonnie, for the past five years all I've thought about was how to make things right, how to say I'm sorry for what I've done to you. You have every right to want me dead, but you were right again when you said that killing me and my brother would make you no better than us. You are better than us, were the best part of 'us' and I ruined everything, royally screwed it up. But I need you to know how eternally sorry I am for the pain and destruction I caused in your life. I take full responsibility and ownership of all the mistakes I've made that has hurt everyone around me. Your great-great-great grandmother entrusted me with her line and I let her down in astronomical proportions. _

_In closing, I want you to know how much I really do admire and respect you, Bonnie. You were one the few people in my life who called me on me sh*t and in your own way tried to make me into a better person without being so overt about it, and now in hindsight I wish I had listened. But I do hope that you live the life you're suppose to live, and that one day, when you're ready, that you'll accept my apology. I'm not asking for forgiveness, just know that from the bottom of my heart I am so terribly sorry for the trust I broke between us._

_Damon Salvatore _

Bonnie was absolutely speechless. Damon Salvatore apologized? He was taking full responsibility for all the crap he pulled over the years and for all the pain he's caused hundreds of people? She wasn't sure what to think or how to take this.

Luckily she didn't have to think much about it because the door to her room opened.

"You all right?"

Bonnie nodded her head and offered a smile to the man leaning in the doorway. She felt her nose tingle and she hoped she wasn't about to start crying again. She had spent a majority of the day crying happy tears because her favorite teacher found love and happiness after all this time, and after losing not one but two women he loved.

Alaric's and Meredith's wedding had been simple, beautiful, and elegant. They wrote their vows themselves, and the private affair made Bonnie remember the good times she shared with those who were in attendance.

Of course there had been that one major dark spot in the form of Damon Salvatore that she refused to acknowledge. He didn't say a word to her which was just fine and what Bonnie had hoped for. She was able to carry on and enjoy herself at the reception where she danced with her mother, cousin, and her two best friends.

Coming back to Mystic Falls after a five-year hiatus was hard. It was a bittersweet vacation from the whirlwind that had become her life.

Once she and Abby made the conscious decision to leave town, at first Bonnie was apprehensive. She didn't want to leave everyone unprotected, but with the original family gone aside from Klaus and Rebekah, Bonnie was done trying to settle that particular old score. What was so wrong in letting them live their lives and who appointed her judge, jury, and executioner? Sure he may have tried to kill her best friend to lift his curse, but Elena still had her life. Everyone who was connected to her was still alive—well aside from her grandmother and her newly turned mother. Bonnie knew that if she remained in town, her sanity might end up in shreds, and felt it was for the best to put as much distance between herself and her hometown.

So she and Abby set off, first stopping by Abby's farm where they lived quietly for a few months getting to know each other. Jamie took Abby's vampirism just as hard as Bonnie did and even contemplated riding off to Mystic Falls to finish what Bonnie started with the Salvatore boys, but even Bonnie realized she needed to let it go, not forget what they did, but to simply let it go because the anger was eating her alive.

Once spring hit, she and Abby took off to find other living Bennett's and came across Lucy down in Miami. And from there everything was a blur.

The trio hopped from state to state and then lived internationally for two years in Germany, France, and Japan.

Admittedly it was the best time of Bonnie's life.

Lucy, surprisingly was the first one to get homesick so the ladies packed up their belongings and headed back to the states but then settled in the state where their line began: Massachusetts. And there, that's where she met and fell in love with the love of her life.

She eyed him now with a tender expression on her face as Caleb Danvers sauntered in her childhood bedroom. It was his love that really made Bonnie start the healing process of old and past hurts that never really had the time to heal properly. And she couldn't believe her luck that the guy who would make her remember what it felt like to love, was a warlock and hailed from one of the founding families of Ipswich.

They were a powerful pair, but lived a quiet domestic life in Connecticut where they were leaving for in the morning.

Caleb saddled up behind Bonnie on her bed, wrapped his arms around her and kissed her shoulder. He spied the letter lying semi-forgotten in her lap.

"Where's Mini?" Bonnie asked.

"With Caroline," Caleb responded. "We should get some sleep because we have a long drive ahead of us in the morning. It's not too late to get plane tickets."

Bonnie shook her head. "I don't mind the drive, gives me time to think. I'm going to hop in the shower."

Bonnie jumped off the bed, grabbed her carry-on and disappeared in her bathroom. Once alone, she stared at her reflection for a moment, opened up her carry on and pulled out a velvet pouch. She tested the weight of the parcel in her hand, thought for a moment, and came to a decision.

"It's time I give you back."

IIIIII

The following morning Bonnie stood in front of the Salvatore boardinghouse. She had made a vow never to step foot here again unless she was armed with a pitch fork and a tank of gasoline. Instead she was here to deliver her final token before learning Mystic Falls for good.

Bonnie sat the velvet pouch and a note down on the brick step, rang the doorbell and got missing.

Damon wondered the halls of his home, heard the toll of the bell and flashed to the door. Of course no one was standing there when he threw it open, but he saw a purple velvet pouch and a letter. Picking up both items he looked to his right and left, his eyebrows doing that weird up and down thing they did, and he retraced his steps back inside.

First he opened up the pouch and spilled the contents. His eyebrows nearly rose from his face. It was his and Stefan's day walking rings.

The letter momentarily forgotten, Damon stomped back to the front door, walked out until he stood in the middle of the street and eyed down both ends. All was quiet and he didn't even smell car exhaust.

Bemused he walked back into the boardinghouse and opened up the letter.

_I'm going to make this brief. Thanks for finally apologizing for what you did. For so long I allowed my anger to rule me, to have dominion over nearly everything I did, and Abby made me realize that's not the way I wanted to live my life._

_I'm still working towards forgiving you and Stefan—I expected something like that from you, but your brother has disappointed me in ways that it makes it hard for me to sit still._

_But I'm giving you back your ring. Holding on to it was like reliving the horror of that night. You may have broken a branch from the Bennett line, but the tree still remains. We're stronger when we're together, me, my mom, Lucy, and my daughter. _

Damon stopped reading. Bonnie was a mom? Bonnie had a daughter?

He continued reading.

_I don't know what your life is like now, Damon, but I really do hope you've changed…for the better._

_Bonnie Bennett_

Once he was done reading, Damon eyed his ring. When he realized that Bonnie kept it, he couldn't work up the energy to try to get it back. He figured letting her keep it as a trophy was the least he could do. Having it back brought back memories of the monster he used to be, and he had worked too hard not to be that person anymore. He slipped the rings back into the pouch and then buried it in the bottom of one of his junk drawers.

But Bonnie was a mom? Not once had she mentioned her child while she caught up with Matt, Ric, Caroline, everyone but him. He could certainly understand why she'd want to keep that detail private, but why reveal it to him?

He could drive himself crazy thinking about that, but he had to smile because he knew she was probably an awesome mom with a little girl who was probably her splitting image.

Bonnie had found happiness, started her own family, and had clearly won the war that was raged so long ago.

"Congratulations, Bonnie, you deserve it."

IIIII

Bonnie walked to the idling SUV that was parking outside of her childhood home. This was a surreal visit one she was both glad and sad it was ending.

She smiled as she watched Caroline sitting in the back seat making faces and sound effects with her mouth to the precious cargo that was strapped in her car seat. Hearing her daughter giggle made her smile.

"You're spoiling her, Caroline," Bonnie complained and waited for her friend to slip out of the car, which took some doing.

"She loves her godmother and she can't get enough of me," she directed at her friend before returning her attention back to the drooling three month old. "Isn't that right sweetie," and from there Caroline's voice kept rising in octave until she began to sound like a dolphin.

Bonnie rolled her eyes and then looked to her fiancé. Caleb could do nothing but shake his head back and forth.

"Care," Bonnie said sternly.

"Oh, all right, party pooper," the blonde vampire said and rose from the backseat of the truck. She approached Bonnie and wrapped her arms around her. "I know it's still tough coming back home, but please don't be a stranger. Babies grow up so fast and it's bad enough you live twelve hours away and I'm going to miss half of her accomplishments."

"You can follow her on Twitter if that'll make you feel better."

Caroline pouted. "No, I want one-on-one access. But I'm glad you came."

"I had to be here for Ric, it was the right thing to do."

"And I'm glad that the ice around your heart melted just a little, and you brought this gorgeous chick in to the world," Caroline said. Bonnie grinned. "Well, I won't hold you," the two women embraced again. "Have a safe trip back and call me once you make it back home."

"I will." Bonnie climbed into the backseat of the truck, and motioned with her head for Caleb to go. She waved at Caroline and then looked down at the bundle situated in the middle of the seat.

Her daughter, Ayanna Sheila Bennett-Danvers cooed to herself as she attempted to suck her toes. Bonnie couldn't resist lightly pinching one of her chubby cheeks. Every time Bonnie looked at her daughter she felt her heart melt. She was simply beautiful with a head full of midnight hair she inherited from her father, along with his full lips, but she had Bonnie's eyes and skin the color of cocoa butter.

Abby shifted in the passenger seat. "How's my granddaughter?"

"Perfectly content. For now. When was the last time she ate?"

Lucy who was sitting on the left of the truck answered, "About two hours ago. I guess that's my cue to make her bottle."

"Baba…" Ayanna perked up.

All three Bennett women looked at one another. That little girl was too smart for her own good.

"Mommy's greedy little angel," Bonnie said and held out her pinky for Ayanna to attempt to bite.

The end.

**A/N: I didn't want to end this with Bonnie being super-evil and working dark magic for profit. I wanted her to have a happy ending, to have the kind of bonding relationship with her mom that she should have had from the get go and I wanted to include Lucy to illustrate the strength of the Bennett women. I won't say Damon has turned into a complete softie, but he now understands that things he does have dire consequences so he might not be as impulsive and self-destructive as he used to be. I had a hard time with whether or not to include Stefan in this. Like Bonnie said, she expected to be back stabbed by Damon, not Stefan so I figured it'd be best to make sure he stayed away. And of course I couldn't accept the Bennett line being severed. It would have to continue on through Bonnie and her offspring and why not let her hook up with a powerful warlock from a founding family from Massachusetts? Sounded like a great plan to me. Well, I hope you guys enjoyed it. It was cathartic for me to write after 3x15. Love you guys! **


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